Town hall bids to buy part of The Butts for river plan

The council is to start proceedings to buy part of the town centre as it prepares work to re-open the River Roch. Councillors agreed to a compulsory purchase (CPO) order to buy a 1,245 square metre section of The Butts.

The council is to start proceedings to buy part of the town centre as it prepares work to re-open the River Roch.

Councillors agreed to a compulsory purchase (CPO) order to buy a 1,245 square metre section of The Butts.

Officers told a meeting of Rochdale township committee on Wednesday that they needed to undertake a CPO as the land has been used as open space since medieval times and as such there is no registered owner.

Due to this the best procedure is to use a CPO to purchase the land and if no owner can be traced the council must pay any compensation figure to the court.

Gez Wood, implementation planning manager at Rochdale council, said: "The council is responsible to maintain The Butts but we do not own it ourselves.

"We have no means to trace the original owner and there is nothing in the land registry.

"The only way to proceed safely is using a CPO so it stops anyone coming out the woodwork later on if we did start work."

Rochdale council says the bill for exposing the river, which was covered up at the turn of the 20th century and runs underneath the Esplanade and The Butts, would be around £2.3m.

It would cost another £1m to change the roads and improve the area around the newly exposed river.

Part of the work would involve revealing original bridges that date back to the 13th century.

Last week the cabinet agreed to accept a grant offer of £500,000 from the Environment Agency and supported the re-opening.

Speaking at the meeting on Wednesday Peter Rowlinson, head of planning and regulation at the council, said: "This is a significant opportunity for the town centre.

"The fact that the Environment Agency have committed half a million pounds is an indication of attractiveness to the scheme. It is something I hope has broad support.

"I think it will make Rochdale unique as the only town centre in Greater Manchester which will have an open river running through it."

The council will now draw up detailed proposals and planning application for the scheme.

Further discussions will also continue to take place with a number of organisations such as the Heritage Lottery Fund for further funding.